“The nude photos will be made public if the borrowers fail to repay their debts with interest,” an insider was quoted by the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily.
Credit: rfa.org
One female university student, referred to as Li Li for protection reasons, confided and said the loan sharks asked students to provide photocopies of their identity cards, student cards and family data, as well as their nude photos, before being granted a loan.
“Many students have borrowed the money from loan shark groups by leaving their nude photos to the lenders,” Ms Li said to local media.
“Their interest rate usually reaches more than 30 per cent a year, and a student can borrow from several hundred yuan to many thousand yuan according the materials and data they offer,”
The loan amount is often contingent on the level of the borrower’s education, she added.
Ms Li borrowed money from loan shark groups in a bid to start her own business in February. She says she has been since threatened to repay her debts, if not her nude photos will be published.
Some students who failed to repay their debts in due time have sought police help, accompanied by their parents, after being threatened with sexual violence or having their nude photos published onto the Internet, the newspaper reported.
Mr Zhang Xinnian, a lawyer from Beijing, said publishing other people’s nude photographs is a serious infringement of their personal privacy. He urged victims to seek police help or go to court to protect their legal interests.
The moral of the story is simple kids. Don’t ever, ever, borrow from loan sharks. Oh and also not to simply snap nude shots (duh!).
